Immigration Reform: American Bankers Association Chief Calls for Open Borders and Amnesty

By Ronald W. Mortensen on November 21, 2013

Frank Keating, head of the American Bankers Association, has finally come clean about big business' ultimate immigration reform goal — totally open borders with the unrestricted movement of millions of foreign workers into the United States.

In a remarkably candid Op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, Keating writes:

We cannot support open borders for trade but not for people. ... As Ronald Reagan might have put it, it's time to open the doors.

Keating justifies business's open borders position by arguing that it would "boost economic growth" and that it "would also help address a critical long-term gap in funding for America's two signature entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare."

But he doesn't just stop with a demand for open borders. He also wants every individual who is illegally in the United States and who is committing multiple job-related felonies (Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury on I-9 forms, and identity theft) to be granted legal status and a path to citizenship.

"It is unconscionable to leave a class of neighbors who share our values in perpetual second-class status," writes Keating.

Social Security fraud, forgery, tax evasion, identity theft, jumping the line, and constantly lying and cheating may be values that Mr. Keating and his business associates hold dear, but they are not the values of the vast majority of honest, hard-working Americans.

Keating further asserts that "The Senate bill also protects the rule of law by securing the border and ensuring that only law-abiding immigrants receive legal status." Of course that is pure baloney.

The fact is that the Senate bill throws the rule of law under the bus by giving the 75 percent of illegal aliens who, according to the Actuary of the Social Security Administration use fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers, total amnesty from Social Security fraud, forgery, perjury and identity theft — all felonies.

In fact, the Senate bill that Keating extols guarantees that illegal aliens will never be held accountable for their employment-related felonies. It does this by imposing a $10,000 fine on any official who turns in an illegal alien who has used an American's identifying information for employment purposes, thereby protecting the perpetrators while abandoning the victims of their crimes.

Furthermore, under Keating's definition of the rule of law, dishonest employers get to keep their illegal workers, are never held accountable for knowingly hiring illegal aliens, receive amnesty from payroll tax evasion, and are forgiven their role in fostering an epidemic of child identity theft. And to guarantee that employers will not be required to pay for their crimes, the Senate bill, which Keating supports, imposes a fine of $10,000 on any official who turns these crooked bosses in.

Keating deserves credit for clearly and candidly setting out the values of the American business community — lying and cheating, tax fraud, open borders, amnesty for criminal illegal aliens and their employers, and $10,000 fines for anyone who would uphold the rule of law in order to help innocent victims.